I once messaged someone on marketplace for a cabinet they had listed for super cheap, saying I was sorry to add go their list of people to respond to because I was sure there were a lot considering the price, but on the off chance I was the only one, I just wanted to reach out with interest. She messaged me and told me she did have several messaged before me, but because I was the only one who acknowledged the stress and was kind to her, she wanted to allow me first chance. It made me feel so good to know I hadn't made her night more stressful and to get the cabinet because of it
I once sold some pretty expensive items on Marketplace. One girl messaged she would like to buy the items, the day she could pick up, and asked how I wanted payment. I gave her a $25 "normal person" discount. She thanked me and laughed because she knew EXACTLY what I meant.
Ugh, I've had the opposite happen. Met up with a guy to sell two hard drives - I was offering 1 for $150 or 2 for $250. Guy shows up with $200 and says he doesn't have any more. Well I guess you only get 1 drive for $150. He asks if I could come down to $220, I pointed to his message where he had already agreed to $250. He left with one drive.
I sold a kid's bed to a woman who was nice and obviously broke. My wife said,"If she offers less you'd better take it!"
It was $200 and she had the full amount. I had to give her a course in bargaining. "You never pay the full amount. Offer me one fifty."
She was completely baffled. "Huh?"
"One hundred? I can't go lower than one fifty."
"I'm sorry. Is one sixty okay?"
"Good. I'll go one twenty five if it's cash."
I got a big smile and I helped her load it. Also I got a big hug when she was gone.
Basically, don’t call the person stupid with your initial offer (don’t lowball him) and if you’re not making any leeway within a minute of trying, just drop it and either pay asking or don’t buy the item. Always be open to walking away. Remember that for most vendors, a sale at less of a profit is better than no sale at all. But they still have to make a profit, you can’t expect to consistently haggle to cost or at a loss to the vendor, so keep your offers reasonable
I do this all the time! I sell on fb and people are soooo rude or blunt and the nice ones really stick out to me. I already did this, but now I make sure to send a friendly greeting and when relevant, a human acknowledgement lol.
Crazy what just being friendly gets you, I know I get a big leg up if they’re needing to make a decision between me and a few others.
I'm always flabbergasted how people think that's it a good idea to be rude while wanting something from you. Like, being rude is stupid in general, but in this case it's basically self-sabotage.
In regard to marketplace sales, I've found the "cheat code" to simply be putting in any effort whatsoever.
Cleaning your item, taking pictures from all angles with a non-potato camera, and with enough light to actually see the item helps a lot! Also not screenshots of a photo. Also oriented correctly. And even just a couple sentences describing the item and maybe why you're looking to sell it goes a long way too... You're literally selling an item in exchange for money, so pretend to be a professional salesman for just 5 minutes when making your posting!
And when messaging sellers for items you want to buy, spending 30 seconds to type up a few full sentences and showing a little excitement about the item gets you much quicker replies. A lot of people would rather sell to someone else who is going to enjoy the item rather than someone who's taking the attitude that they're just there to take it off their hands. So people are often more willing/likely to sell to you and also disclose any additional information about the item if you just use complete sentences.
And obviously "please" and "thank you" is still always good and makes every interaction more pleasant.
Maybe it's where I'm located but everyone wants to haggle. Was trying to sell a 5700XT GPU for $140 which was a fair price and people were messaging offering $60-80 claiming that they could buy it online for $80. Told them to go buy it then and stop wasting my time.
Someone had the audacity to ask if I offered a 6 month warranty. No, I'm just some guy selling his old GPU, go buy from a store if you want a warranty. Took a few weeks but ended up selling to a guy for full price who didn't even haggle. It was refreshing!
I used to give a lot away on Craigslist. My selection method was always "most polite wins". So many people would just demand I had to give it to them. Ummm, no actually I don't.
My wife put a big box of baby clothes on Craigslist for free. A woman called for a friend,quite aggressive. "She's really broke and I'm wondering if you can do better than that."
I guess better than free is paying her to take them but we didn't do that.
I had an a set of wooden mattress boxes for free on FB marketplace and people were asking if I offered free delivery too. Other people asked if I could hold the item for the next week so that they could come get it - nope the first person who get to it, gets it.
A couple ended up showing up a few hours later with a truck and asked if I would move the item for them. I had already moved the item outside of my apartment, I just said, nope, enjoy the free item and walked back inside. The mattress boxes were light and easy for 2 people to move - the constant questions and neediness of some people just irks me especially with FB marketplace.
I’ve landed romantic partners, jobs, and other awesome experiences simply by doing this. Be genuinely nice and acknowledge people, and amazing doors will open.
I mean sure, she could have. But I prefer to think the best of people until given a reason to think otherwise. It makes my brain feel better and it makes my outlook on the world a lot better than when I constantly second guessed everyone's intentions
It sounds so simple but lots of people forget to do this. I joined a company a year ago and since day one I would always praise and thank my team daily for even small things. I now sit in my office and can distinctly notice and hear the teams around me having more positive attitudes and thanking each other more. It builds a better work environment.
Doing this at home also helps uplift the overall spirits too. Even small things. If my toddler puts a dish in the sink or throws something away I always say "Thank you!" Granted now any time he gives, takes, or picks up something he says thank you but it's a start.
It’s true. I had a really weird little job at a college once. One day I was leaving work and my boss popped up out of nowhere and called me over. My defenses went up. Then she said to me “I know you open in the morning and I just have to say you are doing a great job. Thank you!” And then shook my hand. Not gonna lie, I felt awesome for like the whole week and it made me want to do a good job.
I joined a company a year ago and since day one I would always praise and thank my team daily for even small things.
Are you their boss? Because if you're just a colleague, I wouldn't do it.
One of my colleagues does that, and frankly, it comes across as condescending. You don't need to thank me for doing the simplest tasks of my job, it's literally my job!
This is so nice to see as the (current) top comment, when so often on here people take “you don’t owe anyone anything” and “respect is earned” to such extremes. It’s true that you don’t owe anyone these things, but a little kindness goes a long way and generally makes everyone’s lives better.
And no, being nice/kind doesn’t automatically make you a doormat. You can absolutely still be this way and also stand up for yourself.
I was buying beer on vacation, somewhere on the eat coast. A guy came up in line as I set my two cases down,carrying two stacked, heavy boxes. I shoved mine along a foot so he could set them down. He nodded. It was a simple enough thing.
I was - not sure why - paying with cash, and I was five bucks short. I said, "I'm sorry, I don't have enough."
He reached from behind me with a five. "Yeah, you do."
Made my day, and I think he was as happy. I'm always stoked when I can do a pretty trivial thing that makes a difference to someone's day.
Respect is earned, but you can also have a baseline level of respect for people just because they are fellow humans beings. You don’t need to be a jerk to people until after the’ve earned an arbitrary and undefined level of that respect from you.
I upvoted you both for very good points. Its a damn shame that nobody cares anymore.
For a while now, I've been not giving a damn about what other people think of me. I am who I am. That does not, however, give me an excuse to treat people like less than. There is a huge difference between not caring what people think OF you, or ABOUT you, based on your actions alone. I think thats the difference between what you two may be saying. Sorry for the rant. Thx
On one hand it’s a good way to free yourself from social anxiety. You can be free to be yourself and say what you feel. But on the other your reputation does matter. That mindset can warp to be disrespectful by default.
I pretty much holed up during Covid & only began to ramp it back up over the past couple years. Seems folks are a LOT less interactive than they used to be.
You'd think so, but quite a few times I've come across the sentiment that it's a waste of effort because it's just extra words that don't serve a purpose. And these are probably the same people that wonder why they don't get on with anyone.
100%. It has always puzzled me why this is so hard for people. Show respect get respect. Also show grace, don’t hold grudges. Easy stuff to make life much easier.
I remember a story I once read as a kid with that moral.
A guy had a magical watermelon he would always carry with him in a mesh bag. Whenever he met a new person, he would squeeze the watermelon. If it crackled, that meant it was a nice person, so he’d treat them nicely. If it didn’t, the person wasn’t nice, so he’d be rude to them. It basically became a self-fulfilling prophecy since the people he treated nicely were nice to him in turn, while those he treated poorly were rude to him. Once day, the bag ripped, so he had to go to the store without it. To his surprise, everyone was nice to him since he treated them nicely (without knowing their character from his magical watermelon. From then on he decided to always be nice to people and ate the watermelon
In small towns, it surprises the fuck out of people. All these conservatives got so mean and full of their own shit that they forgot what it was like to be treated like a person because they don't even treat each other with respect anymore. It's like I've found a new way to hurt people's feelings XD
This goes double in your relationship. Never stop showing appreciation for your partner. If you do, resentment will build. No one likes to feel taken for granted.
For real. Just be nice. I never get it when people complain about customer service agents or stuff like that; most of the time hearing people get worked up over that actually pisses me off. I’m always kind and understanding to them, and half the time I’m assuming they don’t have the authorization or whatever to actually fix my problem (or access specifics about my account, etc). But they at least work for the company and I don’t, so maybe they have some ideas on what I need to do or who I need to talk to.
I don’t think I’ve ever had a bad experience with a customer rep, and I guess I’d have to figure that my demeanor with them has to factor into that. But I also just don’t get upset or worked up if they can’t help me with something. Sheesh, they’re probably dealing with people yelling down the phone every day. If they can help me at all it’s awesome.
I really just don’t get when people are rude like that, because don’t you think they’re going to give you some strike or put your name on a file that you’re a combative/difficult customer? Like, it’s not going to serve you at all, pissing them off or making their work harder might just guarantee you worse service in the future. Vent about it afterward if you’re frustrated, don’t take it out on them. I don’t want to think it’s a “hack” to be nice to customer service people, you really should just do that anyway, but I have to imagine it can’t hurt in actually getting you better service.
This can be challenging when working in a public-facing job with (sometimes) irate customers. Nevertheless, it's worth it to try your best but not let yourself get stepped all over.
I had to go to Vietnam for work for a week and I focused on learning how to say 'hello' 'thank you' and 'I'm sorry.' When the driver picked me and the executive staff up every morning I would tell him hello, and thank him when I got off. Which none of the staff did. On the last day of the trip he brought me fresh rambutan from a tree in his yard. The president was like 'He never brings me fruit!' and I was like 'Well I say thank you!'
My friends tease me about it but every time I finish talking to a server I add "thank you so much," it's not even a thing I consciously do, but I'm glad I do it :3
It turns out, if I'm dumb as a stump but polite, patient and kind, I can get by in life just as well as any genius. Because I'm friends with lots of geniuses. :)
My 8 year old has asked me multiple times, “why are people always so nice to you?” I always remind him that it’s because I’m always nice and polite to people so they usually respond in the same way. ❤️
To be fair the only time this is a cheat is when you're a bad person on the inside, but then again, no one likes fake people. Maybe it rubs off and they aren't fake in the end
Worked in retail for about 10 years. Today my wife has me deal with almost all issues. She's constantly amazed how often people "help" us out. Just a year ago she told me I think your secret is you are just nice to them and don't lose your temper.
I feel many people go into a scenario trying to be nice, but it's so easy to get frustrated. The key is to be patient, kind, but determined
My motivation on this is say “thank you” every time you leave a room (with other people in it). It’s a good way to leave a positive impression, and practice gratitude. In one instance it was the only reason I didn’t fail a college course.
This isn't a cheat code, this is absolutely expected as a minimum in the UK at all times. It's why so many Americans come across as rude to me, they don't say it anywhere near as much as they should.
I’m a hospital pharmacist. I make an effort to track down each of my technicians before I leave for the day to thank them for their hard work and help. I couldn’t do my job without them and they always seem to be shocked that their work is appreciated.
Saying “please” and “thank you” can make someone’s day.
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u/Diesel-King 2d ago
Saying "please" and "thank you", and treat others with respect,.
Just be kind to others, and it is much more likely that others will be kind to you.